Abraham H. Cannon was the fourth son of early Mormon insider, apostle, publisher and pioneer George Q. Cannon. Because of his father's prominence, he was introduced to the highest realms of Church and Utah territorial leadership at an early age--an advantage which set the stage for Abraham to make significant historical contributions himself. As a bonus to modern historians, his diaries flow like few others from the late nineteenth...

Lund converted to Mormonism, immigrated to the United States, and became an apostle and later counselor to the LDS church president—also Salt Lake temple president and Church Historian. His diaries cover the tensions between Apostle Moses Thatcher and his colleagues; the rejection by the U.S. House of Representatives of Utah's Congressman, B. H. Roberts; the stormy hearings over whether to seat LDS apostle Reed Smoot in the U.S. Senate;...

These diaries cover a decade, 1880-1898, in which Roberts was active in Utah as a young church leader. They are his apprenticeship years when he developed the skills that would characterize the rest of his career. Besides illuminating the character of the man himself, they also add much to our knowledge of this pivotal time in history.

In 1886 John Nuttall was famously on the polygamy "underground" with LDS President John Taylor. The revelation confirmed the continuance of polygamy less than a year before the Manifesto would reverse that determination. In 1889 the issue of concern was a federal challenge to Mormon citizenship because of suspicion that Mormons swore an oath of vengeance against the United States as part of the temple ceremony.

It was because of Smoot's political clout that Mormon immigrants were allowed to leave Ellis Island; that LDS colonists in Chihuahua were provided safe passage out of Mexico; and that missionaries were allowed back into Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and South Africa after World War I. On the other hand, his protection of Mormon sugar interests in Idaho and Hawaii caused instability in Cuba, his insistence on punitive reparations...

James Henry Moyle was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under U.S. president Woodrow Wilson, Commissioner of Customs under President Theodore Roosevelt, and special assistant to treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau. He was also president of the LDS Eastern States Mission.

Trevor Southey is a man who has risked much in putting into practice his personal and artistic vision of life. This thoughtful memoir is neither laudation nor apologia. Instead, Southey gives insight into his art by recollecting his life's journey up to this point.